University of Barcelona School of Economics: May 2024

On 15th May 2024, we were delighted to present our paper 'Temporality and Virtual Organisations in Business History', to a packed room of the School of Economics at Universitat de Barcelona.

Drawing upon our published work, we explained how the study of historic sport mega projects allows for the enrichment and improved understanding for the fields of project management studies as well as for business, management and economic history.

We each presented for thirty minutes, in other words an hour-long presentation, to outline our ideas and explain some of the concepts and frameworks developed and refined from our own studies.

We also found time to explore the University district which was a five minute walk from the Barcelona FC neighbourhood. This was an amazing time to be in the area, as the famous Campo Non stadium is renovated and modernised.  Surrounded by cranes, this was a golden opportunity to witness Barcelona's famous stadium under such a scale of development, and we were able to take photos to share with our readers.

Sadly, the famous La Masia Academy, where so many stars such as Lionel Messi, were developed, was also shut and off-limits.  We hope that is has new life breathed into it soon, and believe that it should be preserved as an important heritage site.

Of course, we also made time to experience the 'La Rambla Del Barca', the street packed with Barcelona FC shops, restaurants and the museum (currently in abbreviated form). This area outside of the stadium had a real buzz about it, but shall also be cleared to make way for a new walkway and facilities.

As historians of football clubs, administration and broadly speaking their 'business', the museum was of particular interest. Many fascinating items were contained within, spanning the entire history of the club from its formation, the Spanish civil war, world wars, and the post-Cruyff era to the present day. The below images really just scratch the surface of what you can expect to find. Needless to say, the trophy collection alone requires its own large room.   The collections include mens and womens football as well as handball, basketball, and any others sports that the club has been represented at.

On our final night we were treated to a walk around historic Barcelona, taking in Las Ramblas, and famous buildings such as a house designed by Gaudi.  The importance of sport to the people of Barcelona is perhaps best summarised by the inclusion of the FC Barcelona club badge in this stained glass window of the Santa María del Mar church (middle panel, bottom row):

We wish to thank our hosts at the School of Economics at Universitat de Barcelona, especially to Tomas Fernandez De Sevilla Mansanet, for inviting us.  Please check out his superb publications on the business and sporting history of FC Barcelona, especially his recent paper in Management and Organizational History, of which he is probably the best scholar on the topic.

British Academy of Management 2018 Paper Submission Now Open!

The British Academy of Management (BAM) is the UK's premier management studies conference, attracting scholars from a broad sweep of management sub-disciplines, from supply chain management to strategy!

Kevin has been organizing the British Academy of Management' (BAM) Management and Business History Track, which focuses on promoting Management and Business History work of theoretical importance to the BAM audience, since 2011.  Last year Alex joined him, along with Roy Edwards from the University of Southampton and Joe Lane from LSE, to establish a BAM Special Interest Group for Management and Business History which will continue to help promote the best of Management and Business History to the BAM audience.  

The British Academy of Management's 2018 Conference will take place at the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK, from 4-6 September 2018.  This year's conference theme is Driving Productivity in Uncertain and Challenging Times.  Paper submission is now open until the 28th February.

The Management and Business History Track will run again this year, in addition to the SIG which is in its second successful year.  We encourage all theoretically motivated submissions in the broad management and business history field.  This year we particularly look to encourage the submission of workshops and symposia around a broad theme, as well as Full (5-7,000 word) and Developmental paper submissions (1-2,000 word).  Submissions from PhD students are also welcome, and we also encourage PhD students to apply to participate in the BAM Doctoral Symposium.  Please note that those submitting papers are also expected to contribute to the paper review process.

Papers on management history in sport are, of course welcome! 

The track CfP is as follows:

BAM Management and Business History Track 2018

This track aims to encourage the growing number of management and business historians who work in business schools and social science departments to engage in constructive debate with a wide range of management scholars. The 2018 conference theme, ‘Driving Productivity in uncertain and challenging times’, is an ideal opportunity to explore the value of historical study for management research. Histories of organizations, industries and institutions give us the opportunity to understand how managers have responded to uncertain and challenging times in the past, whether it be through war, economic crisis, scandal or other disruptions to their activities. Inspired by Fayol, Ford and Taylor managers also attempted to boost productivity, often with mixed results. In this track we specialize in chronologically or longitudinally motivated research. We welcome papers, symposia or workshop proposals either using new and innovative methodologies, or applying archival methodology to a new disciplinary context. We are also interested in context specific papers using more traditional historical methodology but which take innovative approaches to relate their findings to wider social science concerns. In addition, we appreciate papers dealing with the legacy of uncertainty in the past in business and management more generally, and how it has influenced the diversity of experience in present day businesses, regions and communities.

This year we encourage cross-disciplinary papers and workshop submissions that link different Tracks, while the main conference theme ought to feature prominently in all submissions. As a group we are inherently multi-disciplinary and believe in the application of theory to historical analysis, and there is no single epistemology for approaching this. We aim to encourage theoretically orientated social science history with a clear relationship to present day debates in the management discipline.

Some theoretical and empirical examples of the genre of work that we seek to welcome include:

Maclean, M., Harvey, C. and Clegg, S.R., 2016. Conceptualizing historical organization studies. Academy of Management Review, 41(4), pp.609-632.

Cummings, S. and Bridgman, T., 2011. The relevant past: Why the history of management should be critical for our future. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 10(1), pp.77-93.

Edwards, R., 2010. Job analysis on the LMS: mechanisation and modernisation c. 1930–c. 1939. Accounting, Business & Financial History, 20(1), pp.91-105.

Mollan, S. and Tennent, K.D., 2015. International taxation and corporate strategy: evidence from British overseas business, circa 1900–1965. Business History, 57(7), pp.1054-1081.

Tennent, K.D. and Gillett, A.G., 2016. Foundations of Managing Sporting Events: Organising the 1966 FIFA World Cup. Routledge.

More details about this year's conference and venue can be found here goo.gl/nPZLe7 and you can find the paper submission website here goo.gl/V5VTwm.

We hope to see you at Bristol in September!